| Lessons learned
2. Demonstrate that hydropower can be done sustainably – if not “the sceptics will always be circling”.
3. Keep pushing forward to make sure that hydropower projects always follow good practice.
4. Speak up. “We’ve been too long sitting around hoping that people will pick us up,” Gill said. “We have got to get out there and say we can change this world with hydropower.” Amanda Ashworth, Director of Strategy Sales and Commercial at Entura, agreed that the urgency is upon us with climate change reality. Although hydropower does have “somewhat of a chequered past” she said that there is the opportunity to learn from those past lessons. “There’s a massive transition still ahead of us globally
to lift electrification, alleviate poverty, encourage jobs and education, support economies, and secure water supplies – and hydropower projects have a very significant role to play in achieving these goals,” she said. “With robust sustainability frameworks and tools we have the opportunity to do good projects and to heed past lessons. Fast-tracking can’t come at the expense of sustainability, particularly local environmental and social impacts. Getting these factors right are a crucial part of the hydropower journey.” Donald Vaughan, Entura’s Principal Consultant on Electrical and Primary Systems, discussed issues affecting the energy sector today, such as introducing lots of variable renewable energy sources into the grid, and displacing the support the grid has had in place for almost 100 years. “As we introduce more and more variable
renewable energy, we’re seeing it undermine the ability of the synchronous machines that are left to maintain grid stability. If we think about grid stability in a more holistic sense,” Vaughan explained, “then we’re talking about controllability first which is sort of classical stability but then we should also think about predictability and variability.”
Hydro has a role to play in addressing the challenges associated with each of those abilities: ● Controllability – generally hydro machines are synchronous machines and so they bring the inertia default level, the ability to respond to frequency changes and the dispatchability again. So Vaughan said hydropower has got the controllability aspects “nailed”.
● Predictability – As we know where the hydro is, how much storage there is at any given time, it can be called upon in a controlled way.
● Variability – hydro can generally be ramped up and down to mop up the differences that are being presented by the variable renewable energy sources, without huge impacts on efficiency or other knock-on effects that perhaps thermal machines might see in that space.
Richard Herweynen, Principal Consultant of Civil Engineering at Entura, has been working on pumped hydro schemes in Australia and Malaysia. He said that from his involvement in such projects it is clear that “hydro power is definitely playing an important role in the current energy transition”. Pumped hydro storage is “the need of the hour”, commented Rajiv Raynan, Entura’s Resident Director and Team Leader in India. He added that the Ministry of Power in India has clarified that energy storage systems will be an integral part of the new electricity bill, and work will soon start on compiling an atlas for Indian pumped hydro projects, and possibly across South Asia. “It seems the energy transition is fast moving,” Entura’s Director of Hydropower and Headworks Dale Bryce commented. “It certainly is across Australia and the Indo-pacific as we see the rise of cheap renewable power complemented by energy storage, with hydropower providing deep storage options for when the sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow. In the end it seems that all of this is going to be required as we confront the energy trilemma of energy security, affordability and environmental sustainability.” ●
Ten years of clean energy and water
Entura has celebrated ten years of its dedicated training arm, the Entura Clean Energy and Water Institute (ECEWI), which has delivered 146 training programmes to power and water clients in Australia and internationally. More than 2000 participants have been trained across a total of 10,857 training days. “ECEWI formalises a long history of knowledge sharing, capability development and training across our full range of expertise and services,” said Amanda Ashworth, ECEWI’s Business Manager. “We are passionate about empowering and supporting our clients through training, and understand the importance of a skilled renewables workforce in the global energy transition.” ECEWI has formed strong training relationships with a number of local partners in Australia, conducting hydropower operator training for a power utility and has longstanding relationships to deliver certified dam safety training regular dam safety training courses. Ashworth said they are proud of training achievements in international markets too, such as the Pacific region, where the institute has provided hydropower operator training to a client in Papua New Guinea, to build capability and improve efficiencies. In Asia, ECEWI has enjoyed close relationships with Bangkok’s Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Kuala Lumpur’s Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), the Malaysian Committee on
Large Dams (MYCOLD), Sarawak Energy Berhad and others. The institute recently celebrated the successful completion of MYCOLD’s dam safety inspector course which was conducted virtually through remote training with supported assessments using photos and videos due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic was an opportunity for us to adapt our offerings and brainstorm how we could continue to deliver training for clients in a hybrid format, using a blend of traditional and virtual technologies and methods,” said ECEWI’s Program Coordinator, Leesa deGroot. “This has led to other training opportunities moving forward, including a current collaboration with UNITEN to deliver international hydropower training in south Asia for AIT’s Energy Development, Services Management and Technology Programme.”
“The first decade of ECEWI has been very fruitful and satisfying,”
Ashworth said, “and we’re looking forward to continuing the journey of building skills across our regions to support the clean energy transition and greater safety and sustainability of energy and water infrastructure.” Entura’s Webinar, Can Hydropower resolve the Energy Crisis? Global Hydropower Day 11 Oct 2022, can be seen at
www.youtube. com/watch?v=zXy42ndK5x4
Above: Opportunity exists for sustainable hydropower as the current energy crisis is driving a faster transition to wind and solar power
www.waterpowermagazine.com | February 2023 | 17
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